President Obama’s Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Task Force report was released yesterday with 69 recommendations that focus on planning for future storms. It calls for development of a more advanced electrical grid and the creation of better planning tools and standards for storm-damaged communities. Making wireless communications networks more resilient in extreme weather emergencies was another recommendation. City projects, like the Blueway Plan to make the East River more accessible, are already incorporating resiliency efforts into their plans.

Quinn's wife said if her partner is elected as the first woman and openly gay mayor "it will change lives for young girls, it will change lives for LGBT people, and for New Yorkers, it will say a lot about the amazing place we live." (The Wall Street Journal)

TODAY: Candidate forum for the 50th City Council District race sponsored by Food Bank for New York City. (Gotham Gazette calendar)

The city's new evacuation maps include 600,000 new residents, bringing the total number to 2,990,000. That's 37 percent of all the city's homes. It also adds 26 project buildings. The map is now divided into six zones, up from three, with Zone 1 being the most at risk. The new zones offer more flexibility in ordering evacuations. They were designed using data from the National Weather Service's view of sea rise.

]]>mmuller@gothamgazette.com (Mike Muller)The Eye-OpenerWed, 19 Jun 2013 12:31:18 +0000WATCH: Bloomberg's Speech On A More Resilient NYC #AdaptNY #SIRRhttp://www.gothamgazette.com/index.php/the-eye-opener/entry/city/2013/06/11/watch-bloombergs-speech-on-a-more-resilient-nyc-adaptny-sirr
http://www.gothamgazette.com/index.php/the-eye-opener/entry/city/2013/06/11/watch-bloombergs-speech-on-a-more-resilient-nyc-adaptny-sirr]]>webmaster@gothamgazette.com (Administrator)CityTue, 11 Jun 2013 18:29:58 +0000Introducing AdaptNY: Join The Conversation On Climate Change Adaptationhttp://www.gothamgazette.com/index.php/the-eye-opener/entry/city/2013/06/11/introducing-adaptny-join-the-conversation-on-climate-change-adaptation
http://www.gothamgazette.com/index.php/the-eye-opener/entry/city/2013/06/11/introducing-adaptny-join-the-conversation-on-climate-change-adaptationAs Mayor Michael Bloomberg unveils his administration's vision for making New York City more resilient to climate change, Gotham Gazette is working to help democratize the public debate on the issues.

Gotham Gazette is partnering with veteran journalists and technology pioneers to bring you AdaptNY, which aims to "curate, document and foster conversation about how New York will adapt to the coming challenges of climate change."

The project is led by veteran journalist A. Adam Glenn, of the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism.

The project will be edited and curated by Glenn, and Gotham Gazette will be providing content and editorial guidance. We'll also be promoting AdaptNY's efforts on Facebook and Twitter, and encourage readers to visit the project site.

We are also proud to be partnering with DocumentCloud to develop an online tool for stimulating public policy discussion around key reports on climate change.

That tool will be made available to the general public in a few weeks.

Increased flooding, more rain and storms, and higher temperatures are all predicted in a new report by the Bloomberg Administration. Over 800,000 residents are expected to live in flood plains by 2050, more than double the number currently estimated at risk. By that time, 90 degree days could become as regular as they are in Birmingham, Ala. Heat waves kill more people than storms. Sea levels are anticipated to rise four to eight inches by 2020. Bloomberg will give a speech today about how the city will begin preparing for this new climate.

Yesterday Con Edison revealed some of its first improvements to protect its network of equipment against flooding and storms as hurricane season quickly approaches. The planned upgrades are expected to total $1 billion over the next four years. To pay for it, the utility is asking for a rate hike that will amount to $3 a month per customer. Con Ed has been criticized for being understaffed when the storm hit and for handing out bonuses to executives for their handling of it. The utility is also planning to spend $1.2 billion this year on upgrades to prepare for the summer heat.

Several lawmakers, longtime Albany political operatives, and former staffers say that there is a “boys' club” atmosphere in the capitol where women are pressured to go along to get along. They blame a failed system of protection for women from unwanted advances and inappropriate behavior from male superiors -- including outdated and sometimes confusing requirements for reporting sexual harassment that fail to provide the kind of safeguards that exist in the corporate world. By David Howard King.

]]>mmuller@gothamgazette.com (Mike Muller)The Eye-OpenerWed, 29 May 2013 12:06:39 +0000Court Says #Sandy Evacuees Can Stay In Hotels Until Mid-Mayhttp://www.gothamgazette.com/index.php/the-eye-opener/entry/city/2013/05/01/court-says-sandy-evacuees-can-stay-in-hotels-until-mid-may
http://www.gothamgazette.com/index.php/the-eye-opener/entry/city/2013/05/01/court-says-sandy-evacuees-can-stay-in-hotels-until-mid-mayA Manhattan judge has ruled that hundreds of Sandy evacuees currently living in hotel rooms paid for by the city can stay until at least mid-May.

The city had said they would be evicted from the hotels on April 30, after funding for the program ended.

Attorneys for the city said that they planned on extending the deadline to the same date regardless of how the judge would have ruled today.

The city's Law Department said that the city had spent close to $60 million on helping households transition into stable living arrangements. Department of Homeless Services Commissioner Seth Diamond told reporters last week that the hotel program had cost the city $40 million.

"We are gratified" the Law Department's Thomas Crain wrote in a statement late today, "that the court has agreed to hear and decide the matter promptly. We believe the court will ultimately find that the city's response has been completely proper."

The city argues that the city has provided more than enough resources for all Sandy evacuees that used the hotel program, including those have been unable to secure housing after the intially planned eviction date at the end of April.

Mayor Bloomberg delivered a passionate speech yesterday defending his police policies and lashing out at critics. He lambasted civil rights groups and the media for not showing outrage at the recent murder of a boy in the Bronx. He signaled out the NY Times in particular for publishing an article opposing stop and frisk days afterwards. The paper's rebuttal was that the editorial and news gathering sections are separate. But they did however mention the shooting in an op-ed. The victim's mother supports the policy. Bloomberg also panned legislation in the City Council that would create an independent monitor for the NYPD and another addressing profiling. He argued that outside agencies wouldn't share sensitive information if another department could gain access to it and that it would somehow sow confusion among the ranks of who was in charge. The mayor also claimed that the second bill would bar the use of skin color in descriptions of suspects, which the bill's co-sponsor points out is not the case.

SUPERSTORM SANDY ROUNDUP

A New York Supreme Court judge will hear arguments today in a lawsuit that could determine the outcome for hundreds of people displaced by Superstorm Storm and facing eviction from a city-funded hotel program that was supposed to terminate at the end of April. The New York Times reports that relief efforts by members of Occupy Wall Street has created a split in the nascent movement. Community groups in low-lying neighborhoods aren't waiting for the government to develop plans to respond to extreme weather; they've decided to create their own agenda.

]]>mmuller@gothamgazette.com (Mike Muller)CityWed, 01 May 2013 12:06:23 +0000#Sandy Evacuees Living In Hotels Get Court Hearinghttp://www.gothamgazette.com/index.php/the-eye-opener/entry/city/2013/04/30/sandy-evacuees-living-in-hotels-get-court-hearing
http://www.gothamgazette.com/index.php/the-eye-opener/entry/city/2013/04/30/sandy-evacuees-living-in-hotels-get-court-hearingHundreds of displaced Superstorm Sandy victims are safe from eviction from dozens of hotels paid for by the city — at least until tomorrow afternoon.

Arguing on behalf of the five evacuees, the Legal Aid Society says that the city needs to secure an extension for those New Yorkers with no other housing options, which includes at least 125 households.

During a City Council hearing last Friday, Department of Homeless Services Commissioner Seth Diamond told Council members that another 71 households rejected the options given to them by DHS and its hired caseworkers.

One of the many Sandy evacuees at Friday's hearing told Gotham Gazette today that she got a letter from DHS on Saturday telling her that she and her family could stay until May 31. Cherell Manuel said that she didn't know how many of her fellow evacuees at the Park Central hotel recieved a similar notice.

Manuel, a mother of four children with the youngest aged 7, said she was relieved that she didn't have to leave the hotel tonight. Even so, she's ready to move on.

"I'm praying that I can find something becuase I'm really tired of living in a hotel," Manuel said.

While she isn't one of the five evacuees named in the lawsuit against the city, more than 300 other New Yorkers might be saved from dropping out of the hotel program if the court decides in their favor.

Legal Aid Society attorney Judith Goldiner said that the goal is to secure the same temproary housing that the evacuees have counted on until they can transition back into their own stable housing.

"Nothing is standing in the city's way from making appropriate, long-term opportunities available for Sandy evacuees," Goldiner said.

In a statement, DHS spokeswoman Barbara Brancaccio called the city's hotel program "generous, intensive and unprecedented," having served more than 1,500 households over the last six months.

She added that the department was also willng to provide financial support by way of brokers fees, security deposits, first month’s rent and furniture funding. Those evacuees that would have been evicted tonight, Brancaccio said, will either rely on their families or on the ctiy's social services programs.

"Although vast, this was a finite program and was never intended to be open-ended," Brancaccio wrote.

]]>webmaster@gothamgazette.com (Administrator)CityTue, 30 Apr 2013 21:14:02 +0000Today's Report: Sewage Overflows Caused By Sandyhttp://www.gothamgazette.com/index.php/the-eye-opener/entry/todays-report/2013/04/30/todays-report-sewage-overflows-caused-by-sandy
http://www.gothamgazette.com/index.php/the-eye-opener/entry/todays-report/2013/04/30/todays-report-sewage-overflows-caused-by-sandySuperstorm Sandy caused 11 billion gallons of partially or untreated sewage - the equivalent of Central Park stacked 41 feet high - to leak into rivers, lakes, and waterways, according to this report by Climate Central. New York City reported six sewage spills larger than 100,000,000 gallons, and 28 larger than 1 million gallons. New York authorities estimate it will cost nearly $2 billion to repair flood damaged sewage treatment facilities. Sewage overflow is common in the city, although not on this scale, and climate change will only make things worse, the group warns:

"Climate change is making sewage treatment plants more vulnerable to major failures and overflows due to rising seas, more intense coastal storms, and increasingly heavy precipitation events."

Superstorm Sandy's six month anniversary continues to make headlines. The storm is credited for creating a rise in construction jobs in the state. But not everybody is choosing to rebuild, many in the area are walking away from their damaged homes. But hundreds of millions in additional federal storm-recovery funds are expected from a new grant FEMA announced to the Long Island Power Authority. Meanwhile, Gov. Cuomo is ordering an investigation into the bonuses Con Edison awarded executives for their handling of the storm. In the storm's aftermath "we witnessed a complete failure by many of our state’s utilities to provide adequate service to the rate payers they serve,” he said.

Calling the city's deadlines "arbitrary," the suit seeks to force the city to keep paying for hotels until the residents can secure permanent housing. The lawsuit also says that the city's evictions notices were served without a fair hearing, which attorneys say does not comply with federal and state law.

"They have attempted to use whatever resources have been made available to them," said the complaint, "but have been stymied by poor case work, a lack of adequate housing resources and the failure of government agencies to timely implement forthcoming federally-funded housing resources."

The news came on the heels of a rally held in front of City Hall today, where a range of labor, faith and reform groups asked the city to extend the hotel deadline. They also called on the city to address the invasive mold problem in afflicted housing and properly track how the city spends money devoted to Sandy recovery.

Council members Donovan Richards and Brad Lander introduced a bill last week that would track how the government spends Sandy relief funds, including the $1.77 billion the city expects to received through the community development block grant.

"The City Council legislation we're unveiling today will help track how recovery dollars are spent, and ensure that new jobs created as part of the rebuilding process are good jobs for families and households hit hardest by Sandy," Richards said today. "Residents who are still struggling to pick up the pieces six months after Sandy deserve to know that the city is actually investing in their recovery."

Nathalie Alegre of the Alliance for a Greater New York said that the organizations gathered — including members from 32BJ, VOCAL-NY, Good Jobs New York and Faith in NY — were there to ask the city to help the communities still most in need after last year's devastating storm.

"The reality is that the communities hardest hit, particularly low-income communities of color, continue to struggle," she said.

Allison Puglisi, 46, lived in Staten Island's South Beach neighborhood before Sandy and mold forced her out of her home. Currently living in a hotel, Puglisi said she knows that many of those in her hotel are being forced out tomorrow despite what she called a humanitarian need.

"I've lived here my whole life," Puglisi said. "This is supposed to be the greatest city in the world, and I don't understand this."

UPDATE: Thomas Crane of NYC's Law Department provived a statement that the city "made heroic efforts after Hurricane Sandy" and that the "complaint is without merit."

While the city said that it had not been served by late Monday, Crane also wrote that a restraining order preventing the evacuee's eviction signed by the New York State Supreme Court violated the law. The administration, he said, should have received notice before the order was entered.

"We will be in court tomorrow morning to vigorously challenge it," Crane wrote.

UPDATE 2: Councilwoman Annabel Palma, chair of the Council's general welfare committee, released a statement restraining order on Monday night.

“Today's ruling is a welcome relief to the hundreds of families living in hotels who cannot afford to have their lives uprooted once again," she wrote. "But it should not have come to this; New Yorkers should know that they will not be abandoned by the city in time of great need."

The hard-earned lessons of Superstorm Sandy shaped a mayoral forum yesterday where candidates fielded questions on waterfront development, expanding ferry service and creating a new agency to oversee the city's vast coastline. "Make no mistake," said Democratic candidate and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, "you get to say once, 'It was an unprecedented storm.' You don't get to do that again." Six candidates were asked to respond to policy proposals put forward by the Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance that touches on everything from docks to land use. The public also got to submit questions. Continue reading the story on the Gotham Gazette to see what the other candidates had to say ...

]]>mmuller@gothamgazette.com (Mike Muller)CityWed, 10 Apr 2013 12:11:37 +0000Today's Report: 'Strategies for community-based resiliency in New York and New Jersey'http://www.gothamgazette.com/index.php/the-eye-opener/entry/city/2013/04/02/todays-report-strategies-for-community-based-resiliency-in-new-york-and-new-jersey
http://www.gothamgazette.com/index.php/the-eye-opener/entry/city/2013/04/02/todays-report-strategies-for-community-based-resiliency-in-new-york-and-new-jerseyA coalition of environmental organizations, labor unions and community groups advocated grassroots recovery in areas devastated by Superstorm Sandy has released a report recommending that New Yorkdevelop "community-based green infrastructure and climate adaptation projects," "mitigate industrial waterfront threats" and "improve evacuation and disaster response planning." The report was released by the Sandy Regional Assembly. The authors of the report write:

It is imperative that low-income and communities of color be an integral part of the Sandy Recovery decision-making process and help hold recovery projects accountable after funds are allocated. This means having a place at the table when recovery plans are made and funds are allocated; working to ensure that recovery efforts are coordinated locally and regionally; and demanding transparency from elected officials and appointed task forces. Low-income communities of color are on the frontline of climate change impacts - but we are also leaders in making our communities, homes, and workplaces safe and resilient now and in the future.

Months after flooding caused by Hurricane Sandy forced Red Hook's Fairway Market to close it doors, the grocery store held a grand re-opening on Friday morning.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg was on hand for the event and called it a “great day for Red Hook.” The 39,000-square-foot store was one of many businesses along the waterfront forced to rebuild after Sandy’s $19 billion in losses to the city.

Reconstruction was also the focus of a City Council hearing on Friday. Members from the Finance and Community Development Committee released statements asking legislators in Albany not to punish home- and business-owners affected by Sandy. The Council members argued that the state’s property law doesn’t properly distinguish between reconstruction costs and home improvements.

“Clearly, one person is improving their property at their discretion and the other is trying restore their life and home after a devastating event outside of their control,” said Speaker Christine Quinn in a statement.

In other Sandy-related news, City Comptroller John Liu earlier this week announced that four of the city’s pension funds voted to invest $500 million in real estate projects for areas hit hardest by the storm. The investment is part of the comptroller’s effort to connect the pension funds with local real estate developers to potentially rebuild 3,000 units of housing and as much as 200,000 square feet of commercial space.

___

Image of Mayor Michael Bloomberg at Fairway in Red Hook, courtesy of the mayor's office. Photo by Edward Reed.

Public Advocate Bill De Blasio has called on the Federal Emergency Management Administration to help pay for the removal of mold growing in homes that were flooded during Superstorm Sandy.

De Blasio also called yesterday for the creation of a hotline for mold-related inquiries, expanding mold inspections and the establishment of a health surveillance network to monitor respiratory illnesses in areas affected by the storm.

Gotham Gazette reported earlier this month that public health officials and recovery workers are increasingly concerned about the health risks posed to residents living in homes where mold has been growing.

The city's health officials have been monitoring the situation in storm-ravaged areas.

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Image of De Blasio courtesy of Azi Paybarah, used under Creative Commons license.

]]>webmaster@gothamgazette.com (Administrator)CitySun, 23 Dec 2012 17:39:50 +0000Today's Leads: Still Rebuilding From Sandy; Overnight Subway Repairshttp://www.gothamgazette.com/index.php/the-eye-opener/entry/city/2012/12/17/todays-leads-still-rebuilding-from-sandy-overnight-subway-repairs-
http://www.gothamgazette.com/index.php/the-eye-opener/entry/city/2012/12/17/todays-leads-still-rebuilding-from-sandy-overnight-subway-repairs-NYU Langone Medical Center is getting a $114 million grant from the federal government this week. The hospital was shuttered by Superstorm Sandy. Also, Assembly Speaker Silver is trying to secure grants from the federal government to help small businesses demolished by the storm. But the destruction wrought by the storm was more than physical and financial, it was emotionally traumatic, and its toll is still being born out.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg said yesterday that the city would rethink evacuation zones, electrical infrastructure, telecommunications networks, hospitals and transportations systems after Superstorm Sandy caused billions of dollars in damage, paralyzed communities and killed dozens of people.

But Bloomberg said that his administration would not abandon the waterfront and dismissed the possibility of building sea walls to hold back the ocean. Instead, he said the city would look at "coastline protections" such as berms, dunes, jetties and levies.

"No matter how much we do to make homes and businesses more resilient, the fact of the matter is we live next to the ocean, and the ocean comes with risks that we just cannot eliminate," the mayor said.